Bombing suspect threatened to blow up FPL building, and it wasn't his only crime

By Anne Geggis and Stephen HobbsSun Sentinel

Sunday

Oct 28, 2018 at 5:27 AM

Suspected mail bomber Cesar Altieri Sayoc Jr. once threatened to blow up a Florida Power & Light building if the utility turned off his power.

The explosion on West Flagler Street in Miami, he promised, would be "worse than 9/11."

"FPL will get what they deserve," he says on a recording from 2002.

He also threatened to blow off the head of the customer service representative who had just verified his name and account information, records show.

For that crime, he received one year of probation.

Over nearly 30 years, Sayoc has had multiple brushes with the law and courts, usually receiving sentences of probation.

1991: Arrested on a grand theft charge in Broward County. He was given two years of probation and ordered to pay $1,619.82. In that case, Brooklyn-born Sayoc was accused of running duplicate credit card receipts on customers while working at Concession Air Inc., according to an arrest report. He took over $900 in cash from the company, the report said.

1992: Arrested on a shoplifting charge in Miami-Dade County. Adjudication was withheld, but he had to pay court costs.

1994: Named in a petition for protection against domestic violence, filed by his grandmother, Viola Altieri, who would have been 80 then. The petition showed his grandmother "fears for her physical safety, as [Sayoc] is very large and very powerful" and volatile. It said Sayoc pushed her. The petition also said Sayoc had a drug problem, specifically with steroids.

2004: Accused of intentionally showing a fake driver's license at a Home Depot in Pompano Beach to return merchandise for a refund of $353.27. He told a Broward Sheriff's deputy that "he pulled out the wrong ID and that he did carry the fictitious [driver's license] so he could be deceptive about his age."

He was carrying nearly $19,000 in cash in a blue bag, the arrest report said. He also had a fake Social Security card on him, according to the report. Sayoc was also seen dropping another fake driver's license after he was taken to jail, the report said. He received 18 months of probation.

During the arrest in that case, another deputy found needles and vials of controlled substances, including testosterone, inside his Ford Bronco. Sayoc did not have a prescription for the steroids and other drugs, the arrest report said. The charges relating to possessing controlled substances and steroids were later dropped.

Also in 2004: Accused again of possessing steroids. The charges were dropped.

2009: Written up for a criminal traffic violation -- driving without a license.

2014: Arrested on a shoplifting charge in Miami-Dade County. He was convicted, ordered to pay court costs and told to stay away from a Walmart there.

2015: Arrested for shoplifting $58 worth merchandise in the luggage department from a West Palm Beach Walmart. He was found guilty and had to pay fines and court costs.

2018: Suspected of throwing urine on two women on a moped, driving east on Pembroke Road in western Broward County in March. They described the white van as loaded with Trump support stickers.

Friday night, one of the women in that case said she was shocked to hear the motorist she encountered was now on national news, accused of sending bombs to Trump political opponents.

"It came out of nowhere -- he tried to run us off the road," said Rimbow Gomez, 30, of Miami. "I think he saw me kiss my girlfriend."

Hollywood police took Gomez's report, recorded Sayoc as the driver of the vehicle and urged the women to report the incident to police where it happened. Nothing more came of the incident, Gomez said.

"It's extremely freaky," Gomez said, on learning that the van she described to police was now in law enforcement custody in the mail bomber case.

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